Ever since I saw Hustlers on its opening weekend, I’ve been thinking about Fiona Apple. To be fair, I think about Fiona Apple often enough anyway, because I’m a ‘90s girl and Fiona was always one of my favorites. Fiona’s music and her persona hold up to this day – you could drop her first album, Tidal, into the music industry today and it would be mega-successful. But I digress – I was thinking about Fiona a lot after Hustlers because of the iconic introduction of Jennifer Lopez’s stripper character: J.Lo comes out in a G-string bodysuit and strips to Fiona’s “Criminal.” The moment is so, so, SO good. It’s a perfect song for a perfect scene on so many levels. Right after I saw Hustlers, I read a Variety story about how the film’s producers got the rights to the song from Fiona. They said they sent Fiona the scene of J.Lo’s striptease and that’s what made her say yes.

As it turns out, Fiona never got that tape. We know because Fiona gave her first interview in SEVEN YEARS to Vulture. She approached them about the interview because she wanted to hype the movie, Jennifer Lopez and a few other things. I enjoyed this piece so much more than I should have!! Fiona is still amazing. Some highlights:

Why she gave Hustlers the rights to the song: “Listen, I just want to say: I would give my song to Jennifer Lopez to dance to for free, any day, any time. I really want to see the movie. If I were a person who actually left my house, I’d go.”

Variety’s mixup: During a Variety interview, [director] Scafaria applauded Apple’s decision to donate two years of royalties from “Criminals” to an organization that assists refugees. Except in the video initially tweeted by Variety, Scafaria’s use of the word refugees was dubbed over, rather nonsensically, to imply that Apple is donating royalties “to the movie.” After Scafaria called out the dubbing, Variety scrubbed the original video from the internet and reposted it with corrected audio, calling the misstep a “glitch.” Fiona says about the glitch: “As my friend Zelda would say, I’m a justice kid. It doesn’t sit right with me that they covered over the word refugees. I don’t want to throw a wet blanket on the movie or anything; Lorene Scafaria is bringing awareness to what sex work is like, and Jennifer Lopez is moving things forward for Latinas and women everywhere. Everyone has something that they care about, and I care about this.”

She’s donating the proceeds to “Criminal” to While They Wait: The organization provides legal and other services to immigrants in the U.S. “I was, like everybody, getting really frustrated. A lot of us want to go down and get these kids out of their cages and give them food and blankets and showers, but there’s no way to f–king get in there. They won’t let you in and they won’t even take donations. I was looking on Twitter, which is unusual for me. I did a Twitter search on immigration and I found [Scott], and this organization made the most sense for me. If I can’t get stuff in there, at least I can try and help them get out of there. When you can help and you want to, it’s really wonderful to do that.

Giving the rights to “Criminal” to a film for the first time ever: “To be honest, I really don’t think I remembered that I had given the song to Hustlers. And I was like, “Whoa, I forgot about that! That’s so great.” Basically, every single time any college dancer or So You Think You Can Dance [contestant] asks, I’ll give them the rights. “Criminal” has always been what people ask for the most, so it’s always been my little help-out-people song.”

After the interview was over, Fiona texted Vulture with this amazing J.Lo story: “I forgot to tell you my J.Lo story from like 1996 or ‘97! I was in NY at a pre-Grammy party (because I used to go to sh-t like that). And my sister Maude was with me, but she was on the other side of this big room filled with little tables and mingling celebrities and executives… So J.Lo’s album hadn’t come out yet,and nobody had started talking about her ass yet — and I swear I saw her (J.Lo), and ran to get my sister JUST to show her how beautiful that ass was — and the moment I pointed her out to my sister, J.Lo turned to speak to someone and her butt was just above table-level, and her butt knocked over someone’s glass of champagne and she didn’t even notice. It was glorious.”

How J.Lo has said complimentary things about Fiona on the press tour: “She HAS?! I’m still getting over watching Lorene Scafaria say my name and seeing J.Lo nod, like she knows who I am — that’s just strange!”

[From Vulture]

I hope the studio is already arranging a special screening of Hustlers for Fiona in her house, because she absolutely needs to see THAT SCENE. And the whole movie, because the movie is great. Fiona also talks about how she’s working on a new album, but she doesn’t sound like she’s in any hurry, and how she’s mostly off sleep medication and alcohol and she just smokes pot and hangs out with her dog these days. Fiona was always sort of a strange and extraordinary machine. I hope she continues to chime in with random celebrity stories from the ‘90s. The story about J.Lo knocking over a glass of champagne and not even noticing it is just… a perfect story. I’m so proud of Fiona for witnessing it and paying it forward.

Photos courtesy of WENN.